Hundreds missing, survivors rescued in Indonesian ferry disaster

Jan 13, 2009, 0:28 GMT

Jakarta - One body and a total of 33 survivors were rescued two days after a passenger ferry capsized off the Indonesian province of West Sulawesi, leaving an estimated 230 others missing and feared dead, officials said Tuesday.

The body of one of the boat passengers meanwhile had been found in the Majene waters and was taken ashore by a navy warship to Majene port, while eight more survivors were picked up from the rough seas, said Junaidi, an official in the West Sulawesi port town of Majene.

He said seven of the survivors were picked up by a cargo vessel that passed around the sunken ferry and they were taken to the Makassar port in south Sulawesi capital.

By late Monday night, a total of 33 survivors were known to have survived the accident, Junaidi, who like many Indonesians goes only by one name, said.

The ferry, Teratai Prima, left Pare-pare on Sulawesi island in central Indonesia Saturday evening for Samarinda, East Kalimantan.

The boat sank before dawn Sunday off the coast of Majene in West Sulawesi after being hit by waves as high as 4 metres during bad weather, survivors said.

Most passengers were asleep and had little time to react.

Transport Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal on Monday blamed the accident on the bad weather and said a thorough investigation would be made, in particular of the lack of coordination between port officials in Pare-Pare and the captain of the ferry, who survived the disaster.

Jusman said the country's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency had issued warnings that huge waves and storms would occur through the sea lane between Sulawesi and Borneo islands.

Head of Pare-pare harbour administration Nurwahida said that in addition to its 250 passengers and 17 crew members, the ferry was also carrying about 200 tons of cargo when a storm hit the boat and sank about 50 kilometres off the coastal town of Majene.

However, local media cited missing relatives as saying that at least 45 names were not listed at the ferry's manifest, which would bring the number of passengers close to 300 people.

A search team of hundreds of marine, army and police officers supported by four warships, two marine police boats, search and rescue vessels and fishing boats, as well as two aircraft from the Indonesian Air Force and Navy, continued their search for the missing persons, officials said.

Authorities also ordered all ships passing though the area to look for possible survivors or the bodies of those missing.

The ferry accident was the latest in a series of marine disasters in recent years in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands that depends heavily on ocean transport.

In December 2006, a ship with 638 people aboard sank off East Java province. Only 230 people survived.